How to Hand Off an AI-Built App: A Developer Checklist
A handoff is not complete when someone receives a ZIP file. The next owner should be able to understand, run, change, and recover the product without relying on your memory or an AI chat transcript.
What a complete handoff means
The recipient should reproduce a working setup from a clean copy, identify who owns each external service, and know how to return to a safe state. This is a test of independence, not a bundle of files.
Make ownership and access explicit
An app may work while its creator controls a personal account, but that creates a single point of failure. Transfer access through provider roles and invitations; deliver secrets through a secure store, never in documents.
Write a short run and recovery guide
A README should help a new developer get started without guessing. Document steps you actually verified and keep staging separate from production. Never put passwords, API keys, or real user data dumps in the guide.
Accept the handoff by checking more than the homepage
Ask the recipient to follow the main flows from a clean copy using test data. If the instructions work only on your machine, the handoff is not reproducible yet. Keep concrete evidence instead of writing “everything works.”